Tacoma just dies-Help please

Hello everyone,

I have a 1997 Tacoma with 170K miles and its a Standard shift with a 6 cyl and recently it has gotten to where it just goes dead suddenly. I dont think its a gas problem because there is no warning at all when it does it. Its like it just loses fire. As long as I am in the Start position cranking on it, it will run but as soon as I release the ignition key to the On position it usually goes dead again. Sometimes, if I stay on the ignition long enough to grind the starter a second or two, it will stay runing. (Ouch, says the flywheel or bendix) It started a few weeks ago and It only happened once then. But today I went to the store and on the way back, it went dead going down the road, I restarted it (Grinding on the starter) and got home but as soon as I got in the driveway, it went dead again. So its getting worse. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Oh yea, Also my radio is connected directly to the battery but when it went dead, my radio quit working also. That was weird because I would have thought that if it was a connection at (or from) the battery, the alternator would have kept everything working.